With the Rising of the Sun
by SawyerRaleigh
Summary: A story between The Sound of Rain and So Today I'll Let You Go. Arashi's mourning begins to come to an end and she struggles to help Subaru find solace as well.
1. Prologue

Arashi stared at the names on the label for a long time before she got up the courage to rip the envelope and remove its contents.

Subaru glanced up from his sake with mild curiosity.

"It's a wedding invitation." She tossed it toward him.

"Why does it have both of our names on it?"

"I don't know. I guess she assumed I was still staying here."

"How did she even know we were both here in the first place?"

Arashi shrugged.

Subaru ran his fingertips across the soft rice paper, drawing Arashi's attention to the lack of gloves today.

"Should we go?"

"I don't want to." She turned to the window.

Subaru waited for the answer to the question he'd asked.

"We probably should though."

Subaru took another sip of sake. "She gave me a bunny once."

Arashi faced him again, perplexed. "Why did she give you a rabbit?"

"Not a real one. A plushie. To keep me company while I was in the hospital."

Arashi's gaze drifted to the right eye. With his eyes half-lidded and trained on the cup before him, she couldn't quite see his irises, couldn't see the amber glint with its cold reminder of a person long gone in that eye.

"What's the date again?"

Subaru's fingertips tightened almost imperceptibly on the cup in a way that most others would never have noticed but Arashi had grown accustomed to reading the tiniest of signs from his body language. There weren't many other ways to know what he was thinking most of the time.

"April 1st." He answered softly.

Arashi drew her knees up close to her, wondering what the significance of April 1st was. She knew better than to ask though and since Subaru volunteered no information, she returned her gaze to the window, watching the way the wind and rain ripped apart the vibrant, nearly red cherry blossoms.


	2. The Ghost

Arashi had at first gone out for work, doing temp jobs, mostly secretarial here and there, but when Subaru had offered her the job of fielding calls and faxes for him, she had leapt at the chance. She knew it was a combination of pity and not wanting the Sumeragi family involved in his work anymore than necessary that had motivated the offer on Subaru's part, but she appreciated it nonetheless as it meant not having to go out anymore, other than the occasional meeting with a client simply to determine whether anything was even actually haunted or whether it was merely another case of a raccoon getting into an attic. The latter case was far more startling, she found but didn't exactly warrant the work of an onmyouji.

It was on one such occasion while Subaru was "on business" in Osaka that she found herself in an office building with an elderly night guard named Terashima who had been claiming so insistently that he had seen a ghost lately that someone had finally decided to call in a Sumeragi medium. Some other onmyouji in the family had apparently already looked into the case and seen nothing, but as the old man had persisted in his claims, his distress apparent, the young onmyouji had contacted Arashi.

She wasn't convinced at all that there was anything in the building if the other Sumeragi hadn't seen it, so she went herself, hoping that she could find a way to reassure the man that Subaru's services wouldn't be needed. He had begged her to stay overnight and she had begrudgingly agreed, wondering what she could possibly have seen that an actual trained onmyouji couldn't. She was especially skeptical upon discovering that the guard had never even actually seen the alleged spirit, only "felt" it and a few times heard it moving about. Arashi was sure a faulty air vent or small pest was to blame, but she humored the man nonetheless.

Naturally she had somehow lost track of the guard and was now on her own, wandering from cubicle space to cubicle space, simply waiting in silence for something to happen. When nothing did, she paused for a few minutes to stare out the wide glass windows. The destruction of the final days of the battle between the Dragons of Heaven and Earth had been widespread and left its mark in the form of hundreds of downed buildings around the city. Still, people had been rebuilding in the last four years and Arashi found herself amazed now, realizing how much progress had been made in the interim. The city had never gone completely dark, but there was so much more light now, even in the dead of the night.

She turned away from the strangeness of glittering nighttime and jumped when she realized that she was no longer the room's only occupant. Standing in one of the cubicles, one arm draped over the side of it and his chin resting on the other was a blond man with an easy and vaguely familiar smile.

"Kishuu*-san, wasn't it?" He grinned. "You do look pretty ghostly just standing around in a building alone at night like that."

"You're one to talk." She replied, taking a cautious step forward. "Kigai-san."

He chuckled. "Are you actually a ghost too? It's a little hard to tell, sorry if that's a rude question."

"No." She answered softly. "I'm still alive."

"Lucky you." He slid out from behind the cubicle wall and pulled up a cushy looking chair.

Arashi followed suit, trying not to stare at the charred clothes. "I don't understand. You didn't die anywhere near here."

"No, but this is where I wanted most to be I guess." He smiled up at the deadened fluorescent lights above them.

"But… why? Why would you want to haunt the place you worked?"

"Oh I didn't work here."

"Then what is the significance of this place?"

Yuuto folded his arms behind his head. "I don't actually know." Arashi stared at him in confused silence until he chuckled. "You know, Kanoe was the one who approached me about being a Dragon and I joined the Dragons of Earth basically for the hell of it. I just figured I'd see what happened because it was bound to be interesting, wasn't it? I was right, being involved in the battle for the world was pretty exciting, but you know, I think somewhere along the lines I got tired of it. I guess I didn't realize how much I liked having a boring life until I didn't anymore. So when I died, I think I just wanted to be somewhere normal." He swept an arm around the room. "And this is pretty much the blandest of the bland when it comes to office buildings isn't it? Maybe I subconsciously chose it because I couldn't find anything more vanilla than this."

Arashi wanted to be bitter and angry with him. She knew he had been the cause of Karen's death and Aoki's injuries. It was this man's fault that they had all lost their mother figure with her gentle comfort and that Aoki would never walk without the aid of a cane again and then only because of Imonoyama's intervention. It was his fault that untold other innocents had died in the destruction surrounding the fight, that homes and businesses had been lost, and lives destroyed. Hell, he had even attacked her and Subaru once when they had returned to Tokyo together. She wanted to be upset with him for that and for so much more.

But she couldn't find it in herself to be angry. It all felt so long ago suddenly and before her sat just a shadow of a man, nothing more. She knew that as a Dragon of Earth he had been a dangerous adversary, but it struck her that ultimately he was just a person. Somehow it had never truly sunk in that the Angels were just people until now, even having been one herself for a short time.

"Why are you still on Earth?"

He sighed and looked mildly embarrassed. "It's cliché to say that I have unfinished business, but I think that is why."

Arashi glanced at the cubicles and he laughed.

"Not that kind of business, it's not like I'm still stuck here because I didn't complete some paperwork before I died or something!"

"What do you mean then?" Arashi paused then a thought struck her. "You don't mean that you're still trying to bring about the end of the world do you?"

"Nah." Yuuto waved a hand nonchalantly. "What's done is done there. You guys won, I'm over it. 'Grats to you guys."

"Thank… you?" She raised an eyebrow. "But what then is keeping you here?"

"Oh. It's stupid really."

Arashi glanced around the room. "As stupid as an office building you didn't even work in?"

He laughed again. "A fair point." She was surprised to see his eyes soften. "I just wanted to tell someone… that I was sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Her mind leapt to Karen.

"Sorry for not being able to make our date for tea."

She stared at him. "You're joking."

"Completely serious."

"Who did you want to tell that to?"

He closed his eyes and smiled, as though savoring a memory. "Satsuki-chan."

Arashi wracked her brain. "You mean the girl with the crazy computer?"

He winked. "Bingo."

"So why aren't you haunting that giant computer room of hers?" Arashi asked carefully, wondering if he knew.

"Ah, see, that's the thing. I'm a coward. I'm a bit afraid of her still being angry with me over missing our date." He gave another easy laugh and it occurred to Arashi that he spent a lot of time laughing at himself.

"You're already dead. What could she possibly do to you?"

"Oh nothing. I was never all that worried about her doing anything to me. I was more worried about what I might do to her." Again that glimmer of softness. "She asked me once why it was wrong to kill humans and I told her that it was because someone would cry for them."

The memories of sobbing over Sorata's body came crashing down and Arashi quickly choked them back before grief could swell up once again.

"She asked me later who would cry for me when I died. I told her that I didn't know what she was talking about, but I realized then that if I died, she would be the one to cry for me. Maybe the only person." Yuuto stared at the ceiling. "As a kid I heard once that spirits can't really move on until someone cries for them, but if that's really the case, I… I think I would rather stay here."

"That's not true." Arashi knew enough of the workings of the afterlife from working with Subaru to know by this point. "It has nothing to do with people moving on."

"Oh, well I'm glad to hear that then." Yuuto gave another self-deprecating laugh.

"But Kigai-san…" Arashi bit her lip then continued at his patient look. "Yatoji-san… she died too."

Yuuto nodded. "I thought she might have."

Arashi shook her head. "No, I mean she died just before you did. Fuuma told us- me all about it because he seemed to find it humorously ironic." She was surprised at the bitterness in her voice at the statement, realizing that it stemmed from an anger on his behalf of all people.

"Oh."

"So she couldn't have ever cried for your death."

"Huh."

Arashi bit her lip again, wondering if she had done the right thing in telling him. "Kigai-san, I'm sor-"

"No." Yuuto stood and stretched as though taking a break from a long day's work. "Thank you." He held a hand out to help her stand and she pretended to take it, not caring to emphasize the part where being insubstantial, the hand was little more than a meaningless gesture. "I'm glad I got to spend my last night with such a cute girl." He winked again and Arashi blushed before the words sank in.

"Your last night?"

He nodded at the window behind her and Arashi glanced back to see the faint rays peeking between the buildings that had nothing to do with the lights of the city.

"I don't actually know where it is that I do during the day, I never seem to remember. But I have a feeling I won't be back tomorrow night. But again, thank you, Kishuu… chan."

"Oh, Kigai-"

Arashi turned back around and realized she was holding her hand out to empty air. She sat back down in the chair, turning to face the rising sun and let the tears flow silently down her cheeks, not certain if they were for Karen or Sorata or Yatoji or even Kigai.

The security guard found her eventually, once her tears had dried and took a seat beside her, watching the people begin to fill the streets below.

"He's gone." Arashi told him quietly.

"I could tell." The guard replied. "I'm glad… I'm glad that you found him and that you helped him move on. No one else believed me and I was worried he would be stuck here."

"I'm glad that you contacted us."

The guard sighed. "I didn't even know there were actually people who took care of this sort of thing, you know. I never saw or heard ghosts until a few years ago." He stared sadly out the window. "I think it all started when my grandson died."

Arashi turned to him, trying to find appropriate words of sympathy but the old man shook his head.

"I was no stranger to loss. My daughter and son-in-law had died years before, but somehow losing my grandson was worse. It was during that year when all hell was breaking loose and I was the only relative left so when they found his body, I was the one they eventually contacted." The guard stared at his hands in his lap, shame falling like a shadow over his features. "I hadn't even spoken to Yuuto in years." Tears began to slip down the old man's cheeks.

Arashi's eyes widened at the name.

"And do you know, when I first found out, I couldn't even cry. This is the first time…" He choked on the words and Arashi took his hand, staying with him in the morning light until the first employees began to arrive and she left then, exhausted.

.

.

*_A/N: "Kishuu"- Arashi's last name means ghost._


	3. Rebuilding

It was Thursday morning again. Neither Subaru nor Arashi liked going out to get groceries, especially since they both ate so little but for the past couple of weeks Arashi had privately declared that one day a week she would go get everything they needed and get everything over with at once. Then she wouldn't have to go out again for six more days.

Today didn't seem so bad though, she silently acknowledged. It was a chilly November morning that wasn't so bright it hurt her eyes to even be outdoors. Normally Arashi hurried to the store and hurried back, the only thing stopping her from running being her fear that others would look at her strangely but today she actually didn't feel that rising panic as she made her way down the street.

In fact, she was completely fine throughout her grocery shopping. Not light-hearted per se, but she reveled in the ability to leisurely browse a little bit. Still very little appealed to her in the way of food, but it was nonetheless a breath of fresh air to not feel completely claustrophobic for once.

It wasn't until she made it to the produce section that that changed abruptly. A teenage boy in a backward baseball cap was juggling melons for a laughing and clapping toddler and Arashi nearly dropped her items and bolted then and there. With a shaky inhale, she dragged herself away and checked out as quickly as she could, half-running home again.

When she returned, she hastily put away the groceries, hiding them away in the refrigerator and pantry as though afraid to see them, before curling up on her usual window seat. She had sat here so long and so often in the past four years that the cushion had begun to wear down and she realized that it probably ought to be replaced but she just couldn't bring herself to throw this one out, much less venture out to find another.

She sighed, feeling a little pathetic for running away and hiding again and she thought back to the boy in the grocery store. Her throat began to close as she first thought of Sorata but after a few shuddering moments, she recalled the boy's act for his younger sibling. The way the child had been laughing at his antics, much the way the rest of the Seals had often been cheered by Sorata's. Juggling melons in the middle of a produce section certainly was the kind of thing that he would have done. Except that knowing Sorata, he would have dropped them all on his head or something along those lines.

Arashi felt the corners of her lips raise just a tiny bit at the thought. The image made her feel a little bit better but she still didn't quite feel up to leaving her spot just yet.

So there she was, plucking at a loose thread in the fraying cushion when Subaru walked through the living room, pausing at the front hall closet to pull out his coat and a scarf. All black as usual, she thought, watching him out of the corner of her eye. He didn't say a word to her, but then they never said a word to one another about where they were going. It never seemed important to share.

It was the hat that made her pause though and actually look up. Subaru almost never wore hats. Okay, so it was just a black newsboy cap, not a beret or anything but with the rest of the black ensemble, Arashi was struck by the sudden image of Subaru sitting on a stool in a spotlight reciting beat poetry. Where was he going that he needed to be dressed like an artist for the opening of their gallery?

Still she didn't say a word as he pulled on his boots and left without so much as an "I'm leaving" but she found that the longer she sat there thinking about, the more she kept imagining Subaru in a coffee shop reading poetry that he had written and curiosity finally got the better of her. True, she knew could just be going to a job, but this early in the morning? Most of Subaru's jobs, for both of his roles, required him to be out at night.

She slid off the window seat and threw on her own coat, determined to find out where he was going.

.

.

Several hours later after a few almost mishaps in trailing, such as almost failing to get on the same train as her quarry, Arashi found herself on the edge of a riverbank. Subaru was next to the water's edge, several meters below her, smoking yet another cigarette and staring at the murky water, choppy in the cold November wind.

Of course it made sense now that she thought about it. They had never actually found a body to bury or cremate, so Seishirou had no actual grave for Subaru to visit each year. She wondered why it hadn't ever occurred to him before to wonder what Subaru did about that. She wondered too, with a small twinge of guilt, why she hadn't even remembered that today would be the anniversary of the disaster at Rainbow Bridge.

She wondered a little bit who Subaru was mourning for, Seishirou or himself.

Arashi shivered in the cold as Subaru lit another cigarette, never taking his eyes off the river. He must have been coming here every year for the past several years and she hadn't even noticed because she had been so caught up in her own grief.

A few more hours passed and Arashi at last stretched as she rose. She had forgotten that even with her grocery shopping earlier she had not actually eaten anything all day and for once, her stomach was actually protesting the lack of nourishment.

A quick trip to a convenience store for a small bun and a bottle of water was sufficient for Arashi and she considered grabbing something for Subaru as well. Granted, he did need to eat, but then it felt too disrespectful to interrupt his meditation or mourning or whatever it was exactly that he was doing. Besides, he probably wouldn't eat anything anyway even if she brought it to him.

Arashi sighed and returned to the edge of the river, unsurprised to see that Subaru had not budged an inch in the time she had been gone. The only change was the number of cigarette butts littering the ground beside him. He stayed like that well into the evening, even as the temperature continued to drop and the air took on a clammy sort of cold with the mist off the river.

Arashi eyed the construction further down, wondering how long they had been trying to rebuild the bridge. Was it all even worth rebuilding, she wondered? There was just so much of Tokyo that had been laid to waste in such a short time. So many homes and lives had been lost… how had the rest of the city managed to go on? She wondered how many other people saw a lost loved one at every turn and panicked. How many people had been broken down by losing all that they had to forces they couldn't control? She had never considered it before, but she was sure now that there must have been many more and yet the city by and large had managed to pick itself up and dust itself off.

But was it worth it? She kept coming back to the same question. Was it worth starting over? It wasn't as though everything could just be the same as it once was and weren't people afraid that even if they had something new that it might be taken away again?

Arashi was distracted from her thoughts as Subaru at last rose. She quickly did the same, dashing back to the train station before he could see her.

.

.

Subaru must not have been in any hurry to get home as Arashi managed to arrive a full half hour before he did. It was a lucky thing though as it gave her time to put away her coat and change into pajamas, settling on the window seat again so that when he did walk in, it was as though she had been there the entire time.

He looked exhausted she realized. Not just the tiredness that came with having risen early and returned home late, but the fatigue of one who was simply weary of life. She waited a few minutes after he wandered into his bedroom before sliding off the window seat and padding to the door. She almost went back to her own room, but something stopped her and she paused to knock on his door. He didn't answer, he never did, so she opened it anyway.

The curtains were drawn not because it was night but because he simply never bothered to open them. Arashi could tell by the dust that had settled on them and it occurred to her that but for the slightly different rumpling of the sheets each day, the room could have been occupied only by ghosts and memories. She took a seat on the bed beside Subaru where he sat, staring at nothing and neither of them spoke.

.

.

Arashi leaned back against the wall, cold to her bare skin to watch him sleep with his face half-buried in the pillow. She eyed the gloveless hand resting on the pillow next to his cheek, letting her gaze trail down the slight curve of wrist to the long pale scar stretching delicately down his forearm. She could not decide if it was the most beautiful or the most ugly part of him, in all that it represented. It was funny how love could both make a person come to life and destroy every last part of them until nothing but a soulless shell remained.

She leaned down and kissed the delicately pale trailing edge of the scar where it ended at his wrist. His eyes fluttered open at the touch of her lips and he said nothing, not bothering to ask what she was doing or why. He stared at her sleepily for a few moments before drifting back to sleep. She knew he probably would not remember the moment when he woke up again.

Settling, back down into her spot against the wall, Arashi continued to watch him, completely aware that the vulnerability that he seemed to have fast asleep was in some ways completely misleading and in some ways paled by comparison with how fragile his heart truly was. On the one hand, she knew that he could kill in more ways than she could imagine and would do so, had done so, without hesitation for the past seven years. On the other hand, he was the kind of person who could be so easily shattered by the slightest of emotional setbacks, especially after all that had happened.

She didn't really know if love was the right word for how she felt about Subaru. She cared about him. That wasn't really up for debate and it was easy to acknowledge. And she wanted him to be happy. That was the part that bothered her the most, she realized, because she knew that he would never be.

Before she could stop herself, she had reached out to stroke his hair, loving the soft, slightly fluffy feel of it beneath her fingertips.

He never smiled. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing though, as she recalled how every time he had smiled, back before 1999, it had been such a heart-breaking expression to see. She didn't want to see him smile like that again.

And yet…

Yet she did want to see him smile. A true smile, one that radiated genuine happiness from the depth of his heart. She wanted desperately for Subaru to be happy, she realized.

So where did that leave her? Did that mean that she was in love with him after all? It didn't seem possible to Arashi anymore that she could fall in love. Sorata, she was sure had been meant for her and no matter who else she met at this point, she knew she would always think of him first.

But that was then, and there were other things in life besides love. A small part of her had begun to foster a quiet gratitude for the fact that she had been lucky enough to find a true love like that at some point in her life. Now… now she wondered what else was out there.

And she wondered if Subaru would be willing to look with her.

.

.


	4. Premonition

"Subaru?"

Arashi could have sworn she had heard him come in the front door but his bedroom door was wide open and the room clearly empty. She puzzled over this for a moment before the sudden sound of gushing water in the bathroom made her jump.

She knocked on the bathroom door although she hadn't really expected much of a response. She cautiously pushed the door open and peeked inside.

"Subaru?"

He sat in the bathtub, still fully clothed, staring at the water as it slowly rose up around him. Arashi had to suppress a gag reflex as she realized that the water was turning red.

"What…"

"He struggled." Subaru choked.

Arashi sank to her knees beside the tub. "You've got to get out of those clothes."

Subaru shrank away from her against the cold tiles on the wall behind him. Arashi was baffled by the reaction.

"Subaru, it's not like I've never seen you naked."

"I don't want to get blood on you too."

It was only then that Arashi realized how pale he was. She glanced down at the tub again, at how much it continued to darken…

"Subaru, you're hurt aren't you?"

A tremble shook his entire body.

"Subaru, please, let me see…"

He shook his head weakly and tried to back away, not seeming to realize that he was only pressing back against the tile walls, smearing blood across their gleaming surface.

"Subaru, you're bleeding…"

He shuddered then forced himself to look down at the water, still slowly darkening. "Hey Arashi." He spoke up finally.

She sighed and hoped that humoring him would help her find out what was wrong faster. "Yes?"

"What do you think makes someone a human?"

"Human?" She eyed a spot on his side. It looked as though the cotton of his turtleneck was torn there and she suspected it was the gravest wound right now.

"Yes; is it having bones and organs and skin?" Subaru wondered aloud. "Or does someone have to have a soul too?"

Arashi bit her lip. Subaru never spoke this much normally. "Why don't you get out of the tub and we'll talk about this while I take a look at that gash there?" She suggested calmly.

"I've been thinking about it a long time, but I just can't figure it out." He continued, completely disregarding her statement.

The last few words came out slightly slurred and Arashi really began to worry. She was no doctor but she was pretty sure that that was not a good sign.

"Subaru..." She meant to grab his arm, pull him up and out of the tub but even as her hand reached out, she found her fingertips merely coming to rest upon his cheek. "You do have a soul. This-" She swallowed hard as she stared at the increasingly crimson water. "-this punishing yourself. You wouldn't do this if you didn't feel for the people that you... take."

"Kill, Arashi." He corrected her distantly.

"You aren't doing it in cold blood."

"I'm sure their families and loved ones would be most comforted to hear that."

"What about all of the people who died in the destructions of the kekkai and in the disasters that followed in the wake of the struggles between the dragons?"

"That was different." Subaru's eyes, never bright to begin with, had a dull glaze to them as he stared at the tile wall before him. "That was inevitable."

"So was your becoming the Sakurazukamori."

He shook his head faintly, just the slightest inclination. "No. I chose that. For my own selfish wish."

"Well then maybe you are selfish. Now show a little more self-interest and get out of there."

She didn't mean to actually snap at him but somehow the words came out with more of a bite than she had expected. Even Subaru seemed mildly caught off guard though he struggled to focus on her enough to show it.

"Out. Now." With a strength she hadn't exercised in years, Arashi at last did wrap an arm around him, literally dragging him out of the tub. She had to admit that she was a tiny bit impressed with herself really considering that he was a good head taller than her with the weight of muscle to match and a set of drenched leather clothes to boot.

Getting the coat off wasn't so bad as she could more or less just tug it off of Subaru's shoulders, but the shirt was a bit trickier. Subaru didn't seem quite coherent enough to understand her order to raise his arms and she was worried that doing so might stretch the wound anyway.

"Stay here." She ordered as she dashed to the kitchen for a pair of scissors. The shirt was ruined anyway, she reasoned, ignoring the lingering guilt at destroying it so.

It only took a few minutes to bandage the worst of the gashes and she was relieved to see that it didn't actually look as deep as she feared. If she could get the bleeding to stop, she actually thought he might be alright. After all, she thought bitterly wrapping another cut on his arm, they already knew that he _couldn't_ bleed to death even if he wanted to.

"Arashi, you don't have to…" Subaru's words were still muddled and distant, so she shushed him and bit her lip. Even if he wouldn't die, he wasn't in good shape, she realized, noticing that his eyes were glassier than before.

She was bandaging one more minor wound when he collapsed, his head sinking onto her shoulder as he slumped forward and Arashi clutched at him, tears of frustration springing to her eyes. An idea struck her then and she struggled to her feet, dragging Subaru outside, grateful that they had no neighbors to wonder at the strange and alarming sight they must be, not that anyone would have been able to see them anyway on a moonless night such as this. It took a few moments of struggling, but at last she got Subaru where she wanted him: beneath the sakura tree.

Collapsing to her knees, Arashi took a few steadying breaths before closing her eyes and centering herself. She reached deep within, to the place where she knew her magic lay, though rusty from disuse, and used it to call out to the tree. The voice she heard at first was faint and slightly garbled as though she were picking up a radio station in a foreign language.

She sank into a deeper trance and the world went darker than black for a moment before she opened her eyes to face a sakura tree lit from within with an eerie glow.

"Hello." She bowed low as her voice echoed strangely in the ether.

"Who are you?" The tree replied in not one voice but many.

"My name is Arashi Kishuu. I was a shrine maiden at Ise."

"Ooooh." A branch reached out to brush her cheek and she repressed a shudder, telling herself that it was only tree sap that made it sticky. "A pretty little shrine maiden has come to see us has she? Are you here to offer prayers, maiden?"

"No, I… I wish to ask a favor."

The tree laughed and the sound made her blood run cold. It was many laughs at once, some cruel and cold like that of a tormentor, some tearful and frightened like that of a child trying to laugh away a bad situation, others still were desperate and shaky like that of a broken mind. None of them were mirthful or joyous.

"You dare to ask a favor?"

"Not for myself." Arashi swallowed hard.

"Oh, selfless then do you paint yourself?" The tree mocked.

"Your guardian. He's injured."

"Sakurazukamori?" the title rolled through the blossoms like a cold breeze. "We know."

"I wished to ask that you help him."

The tree… sniffed almost. "He will not die." It declared decidedly. "We need him."

Arashi wasn't sure what she had expected. She supposed it had always seemed somehow like the tree must love the Sakurazukamori, seeing as how he fed and cared for it, yet the tone of voice it took in regard to him was… disdainful. Resentful.

"I know that he won't die." Arashi began carefully. She had been depending on being able to use the tree's affection for Subaru as a bartering chip and without that she wasn't sure what she had. "But he is nonetheless in pain."

The tree snickered. "Mortal pain. He knows nothing of real agony."

"His heart does." Arashi snapped back before she could stop herself and the tree gave another terrible laugh.

"His heart? Oh you wish to speak of the heart of a Sakurazukamori, child?" The branches surrounded her before she could back away. "Why don't you come inside and see what's within the sakura?" It crooned.

"No." She answered firmly, determined not to let her voice show how terrifying that prospect truly was to her. She had never truly believed in hell, but now she felt that she was standing at the very gates. "I don't want to see what's inside you. I want you to use the powers you have," Ah, maybe she could stroke its ego. "and I know your powers are great, to-"

"Flattery will get you nowhere girl." The tree shook a branch at her disapprovingly. "We know we are a 'great and terrible beauty' as they say without the reassurance of mortal children. We may be vain, but we are also wise enough to not let ourselves be swayed by sweet nothings."

"Please." She began to plead. "Then please just do what you can to help heal not just his body but his heart too."

"Why?" The tree took on an almost petulant tone. "Why should we care about his mortal heart? So long as he feeds us, we care nothing for him. If he is in pain, it is no concern of ours." The branches began to recoil, rolling back in among themselves. "We tire of your games, shrine maiden."

"I… what if I offered you something in return?" Arashi knew she would regret the words the moment they were out of her mouth."

"Oh?" The tree sounded intrigued and the branches began to extend once more toward her. "Like what? Tell us, shrine maiden, what do you have that you think we want?"

"I…" She felt lightheaded at the thought of even offering such an exchange. "I possess the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi."

She felt the tree smile and it was even worse than its laugh.

"Such a beautiful sword. We have seen it before, many centuries ago. But you cannot merely hand over a possession of Amaterasu's."

"How could I offer it to you then?"

The tree stroked her hair and her cheeks with far more affection than she was comfortable with. "The sword would be passed on to your offspring. The only way you could bequeath it to us is to promise us your firstborn child."

Arashi resisted the urge to knock away the branches sidling down to her throat. "I don't think I'm going to be having children."

"Oh we could arrange that if necessary. Besides, it's not as though any random child would be considered ours." It took her a moment to realize that some of the branches seemed to be gesturing behind her. Loathe though she was to take her eyes off the trunk, she glanced quickly over her shoulder and realized that Subaru was still lying prone behind her. "It would be such an interesting experiment. Children of the Sakurazukamori are always born to darkness, and children of Amaterasu are always born to light… what would become of her I wonder?"

Arashi felt her breath catch.

"I can already see her." The tree crooned. "Such a pretty little girl with green eyes."

The image formed in Arashi's mind as well and she knew instantly that it was not just an illusion but a premonition. The tree was right, the girl was beautiful. Before she knew it, Arashi felt the beginning of a kekkai forming and the tree snatched her wrist roughly.

"Not here." It hissed.

"I won't let you have her."

"Then we haven't got a deal?"

"No." Arashi snapped, surprised at the strength in her own voice.

"Then your precious Sakurazukamori will continue to suffer."

Arashi faltered, but only for a second before she remembered the vision. "I'll find another way." She ripped her wrist out of the tree's grip and snapped out of her mediation. She angrily pulled Subaru inside, carefully tending the rest of his wounds herself, with a resolve she hadn't known before. At the edges of her awareness, she could feel the tree watching but it somehow made her all the more defiant.

_You won't have her._ She thought to it in determination and thought once again of the pretty little girl with green eyes.

Her daughter.

.

.

_A/N: So the new profile picture I have temporarily put up is a small sketch my best friend did in response to reading this chapter a few days ago. We both like to think that further on down the line Arashi becomes weirdly paranoid about letting her daughter near any plants, even potted ferns. XD_

_Edit: Just to clarify before I get questions- Arashi is not pregnant yet. She will eventually have a daughter, but not anytime soon, so don't panic. XD  
_


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